Question: The arithmetic sequence $(a_i)$ is defined by the formula: $a_i = -1 - 2(i - 1)$ What is $a_{2}$, the second term in the sequence?
Answer: From the given formula, we can see that the first term of the sequence is $-1$ and the common difference is $-2$ The second term is simply the first term plus the common difference. Therefore, the second term is equal to $a_2 = -1 - 2 = -3$.